Ideas: Black Hair 101 Launch

The Black Hair 101 Series

Hello lovely readers,

I know it has been a long time, but life seems to get in the way a lot more often than before when it comes to the run and maintain element of the blog. Thank you to those who still check in from time to time.

I’ve had an idea and I’d like to share it with you and also ask for some help. I am going to be launching a new series for the blog:

Black Hair 101: A simple Guide to Black Hair

It will be geared predominantly towards non-black people. But actually, there are plenty of black people who don't know a lot about their hair. So this is for everyone. Those with black/mixed children may also find it useful. I wrestled with the idea for a long time because I don’t ever want to ever feel like I am pandering to the needs of non-blacks when discussing my/our hair. But this feels important for a number of reasons. I’ll share two openly with you:

It’s easy to complain about ignorance or a general lack of understanding, but if no one shares their knowledge/experiences, how do we dispel certain myths and assumptions about our hair/skin/difference? This is just as important and significant for black people as it is for white people. There are genuine questions, sometimes a curiosity and there's no reason why our hair should be a mystery.

This centres around the point I have already made about those with biracial children being informed, having a platform to share experiences and ask questions (hopefully) as well as a creative space to learn.

NB: Black = Any one of afro-caribbean/afro-american descent; those with afro-textured hair and/or those with darker skin

White: Non-blacks; Caucasian; European; those with finer hair and lighter skin who do not identify as ‘black’

We all need to become better learners and teachers. Maybe there are blogs already doing this, but there are a million and one things I’d like white people to know about my hair. Now, this won't be like the You Can Touch My Hair social media campaign from a few years back - you still can't touch mine, but there are similarities in the concepts. I would like be open and answer some FAQs. I'd like to draw on the experience of others. There are questions/assumptions I find sweet, funny, hurtful, offensive, interesting and just plain irritating and I’d like to speak candidly about these issues without tension. This is of course, based on the assumption, that non-blacks will read the blog. Maybe they won’t. I hope you will. Either way, we will still have some time and space for introspection and reflection on how we feel about our hair and experience the reactions of others to it.

I will be asking women very soon if they would like to feature in this series. I am not entirely sure yet how things will take shape, but I’m ok with it being an organic process. I may ask men to contribute to the discussion as well.

I am going to start the series by writing about things I want white people to know about my hair. Some of the points may be relevant to black people who have questions about Natural hair.